FIG. 1 shows a proposed metal terminal 1. The metal terminal 1 includes a plate-shaped terminal body 3 provided, on one side in the longitudinal direction, with a crimp part 5 which is crimped to a not-shown wire. On the other side of the terminal body 3, it has a fastening part 11 having a through-hole (not shown) formed to let a bolt 7 as the fastening member pass.
When using the metal terminal 1, the crimp part 5 is firstly crimped to the wire's end having its insulating cover peeled and thereafter, the fastening part 11 is fastened to a vehicle body 13 by means of the bolt 7. In fastening the part 11 to the vehicle body 13, the bolt 7 is inserted into the above through-hole of the part 11 while interposing a washer 15 between the bolt 7 and the part 11 and subsequently, the leading end of the bolt 7 is screwed into a boss, a nut or the like (not shown). In this state, the metal terminal 1 serves to fix the end of the wire to the vehicle body 13 and further connect the wire with the body 13 electrically.
Meanwhile, when grounding (earthing) instruments to the vehicle body, it has been carried out to gather a plurality of wires for connection. Then, a metal terminal as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is employed.
This metal terminal 2 includes a plurality of plate-shaped terminal bodies 4a, 4b each provided, on one side in the longitudinal direction, with the crimp part 5 which is crimped to a wire W. On the other side in the longitudinal direction, the terminal bodies 4a, 4b include respective fastening parts 8a, 8b having through-holes 6a, 6b for passage of the bolt 7, respectively. For mutual engagement, the fastening parts 8a, 8b are provided with engagement parts 10a, 10b, respectively.
Regarding the method of using this metal terminal 2, the crimp parts 5, 5 of the bodies 4a, 4b are firstly crimped to the wires' ends having their insulating covers peeled. Then, the fastening parts 8a, 8b are laid to overlap each other and engaged into one body by the mutual engagement of the engagement parts 10a, 10b. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 3, the bolt 7 is inserted into the overlapped through-holes 6a, 6b while interposing the washer 15 between the bolt 7 and the upper fastening part 8a and subsequently, the leading end of the bolt 7 is screwed into a boss, a nut or the like (not shown), fastening the terminal 2 to the vehicle body 13 (FIG. 1).
In this state, the metal terminal 2 serves to fix the respective ends of the wires w, w to the vehicle body 13 collectively and further connect the wires w, w with the vehicle body 13 electrically.
In common with the above-mentioned terminals 1, 2, however, a tool for unscrewing the bolt 7 from the vehicle body 13 is indispensable to the detaching operation of the wire(s) w from the vehicle body 13, which is often necessary in dissolving the vehicle for its separable disposal, recycling, etc. Therefore, the metal terminals 1, 2 mentioned above have a problem of taking a great deal of time to detach the wire(s) from the vehicle body 13, causing a troublesome disassemble work.